August 2022 Reading Possibilities

Well, I guess I could call July a semi-success in that I did get a couple of goals accomplished.  I finally got the Jodi Picoult books piling up out of my system.  I've never read her as I found her books intimidating for whatever reason.  I read 1 of the 3 I had in the pile and though I haven't done the review yet I will say I will be unhauling all the books by this author that I have.  Not interested in continuing with her.  It was not for me.  But I did get finally giving her a try off my goals so that is a relief.  I finished an audiobook and I DNF'd (did not finish) one of my library books.  I stopped at 65 pages.  Just wasn't interested in continuing.  But in all it was a bit of a disappointing reading month for me.  Was too busy with a family emergency to get much reading done.  I did start a library book last week of July that is actually on this month's list to get a head start because it has a wait list at the library so it will have to be returned within 3 weeks. 

So this month's Read Your Shelf Challenge prompt is  "A Book That Has a Body Part in the Title".   Well I went through every single book I own that I haven't read yet and not a one fits the prompt.  So instead I will do my own prompt and that is "Read a book that has a summer vibe to it...either something summery in the title or on the cover photo."  

Here's the possibilities I've come up with in my TBR pile that also fit my other goals for the year:

BOOKS PURCHASED IN 2020 - 2022

          ~ The Record Keeper by Charles Martin

          ~ An Appalachian Summer by Ann H. Gabhart (finished)

ON MY SHELF

          ~ The Rose Garden  by Susanna Kearsley

          ~ Monsoon Summer by Julia Gregson (finished)

          ~ Summerland by Elin Hilderbrand

          ~ Flight Patterns by Karen White

          ~ The Unhoneymooners by Christina Lauren (DNF'd at pg 198)

          ~ The Sea Sisters by Lucy Clarke

AUDIOBOOKS

          ~Gentle and Lowly by Dane C. Ortlund (finished)

          ~Count the Nights by Stars by Michelle Shocklee

LIBRARY BOOKS

          ~ When the Day Comes by Gabrielle Meyer  (finished)

          ~ Gone But Still Here by Jennifer Dance

NON-FICTION 

          ~ High on a Windy Hill by Ray Djuff     

What are you reading for August?  Do you have any summery books in your piles?   

          

The Book of Lost Names by Kristin Harmel ~ Book Review

Working at a library in Florida, Eva Traube Abrams comes across a photo of an old French religious book in a newspaper article saying that a man in Germany is looking for the owner of the book.  It is a book that was rescued from the Germans in WWII and he is working to reunite those kinds of books with their original owners from before the war.  Eva is stunned as she has not seen that book in over 50 years.  It is a French religious book but it means so much more than that.  In 1942, Eva was a young French Jewish girl when the war came to France.  When her home was raided and her father taken away, Eva and her mother fled to a town up in the mountains in the Free Zone hoping to make it to Switzerland as her father desired.  Eva was very talented at art and she used those talents to forge her and her mother's passports.  When they finally made it to the town, the local priest came upon her and learned of her talents and talked her into using those talents to forge false identities and documents for the Jewish children they were helping to escape into Switzerland.  Eva reluctantly agreed to do it for a short time until she could get her and her mother out.  But her mother was angry with her and wanted to stay in France thinking her husband would come looking for them.  As Eva worked on the forged documents, she and Remy, a Resistance fighter also forging documents, came up with a plan to help remember the children's Jewish names so that they would not lose their real identities.  They took an old religious tome in the library of the church and used a code to keep record of each and every child so there would be record of their true identities.  As her temporary time helping drags on into a more permanent situation Eva works hard to save as many children as she can.  But then her Germans find out about what is happening in the small parish and they are betrayed.  As she runs for her life, Eva leaves a coded message in the book in the hopes that Remy is still alive and will one day come across it.  And now she sees the book in the newspaper and knows what she must do.  Eva books a flight to Germany, a place she never thought she'd ever set foot in.  

I loved this story.  Resistance fighters who forged documents and passports is an aspect of the war I'd never read about.  I loved that Eva's character grew and  became a strong and courageous young woman throughout the story.  The book seemed well researched and really brought out the how bravery was sometimes learned and nurtured in the war and not necessarily something one was just born with.  These forgers were really putting their lives on the line for the children and the author created a real page turning story that had a lot of heart and emotion woven through out it as she highlighted how the Jewish people who might have survived the war physically really lost their whole identities, including their names,  in trying to stay alive.  This book had it all:  historical fiction that taught me something I didn't know, a love story, betrayal, tense page turning, redemption.  Highly recommend!!

Rating:  10/10

Reading Challenge Goals Met:  June's Read Your Shelf Challenge (A book with a book on the cover)

Friday's Fave Five #692

Hello and welcome to Friday's Fave Five!  It's time to hit the pause button and look for the blessings God has brought into our lives during the past week and be grateful and thankful.  And I say both of those are important.  Gratefulness is a feeling or state of being in one's heart, it is more inner.  But thankfulness is an action word.  It puts life into that gratefulness and actually "gives" praise or thanks, an outward showing,  for those blessings.  I can feel grateful for my husband for doing the dishes for me but actually thanking him for doing brings it from an inner thought to an outer action.  It's the same with blessings God gives us.  We can be grateful in our hearts for those blessings but do we take the next step and actually thank Him for them in our lives?   Let's practice both in our lives.  And we can start here by noticing them in the FFF.

~ trying a new local shop ~ a little Indian grocery store opened up within walking distance on our neighborhood right next to our favorite Mexican restaurant so after enjoying our Friday night meal we decided to go next door and take a walk through.  It was really fun walking up and down the aisles and seeing all the different foods and items that we've never seen before.  We tried one of their fresh made sweets to take home.  Surprisingly simple in flavor, it was delicious.  Forgot to get the name of it though.  We also bought a few Indian snack items to try out.  We were surprised to see the India branch of Lay's potato chips and tried the chili lime flavor.  Right up my alley.  There was also a tomato type of flavor that I'll try another time.  Couldn't buy it all in one trip.  And all the Indian spices they had!  I love trying new stores related to all the different cultures in our city.  

~ movie and bbq date ~  We had made a date with our good friends to see the concluding installment of Jurassic Park way back when we found out it was being released.  We had seen the last one with them and were excited to go again.  This was the first time since pre-covid that hubby and I have gone to the movies.  We went to the noon matinee and it was nice because there was only a handful of people there.  We enjoyed the conclusion to this series we've liked.  It was fun to see that some of the main actors from the older version and the newer version were brought together and all the little nods and "Easter eggs" they gave throughout the film to each installment of the series.   Though the theatre had the sound waaaaay too loud.  Painfully loud.  I ended up putting wadded up napkin into my ears. I've never done that before.  We then went to our friend's home and enjoyed a dinner of grilled burgers and salad ending up with an amazing salted caramel ice cream for dessert from our local handmade ice cream shop.  It was a wonderful day to kick off my week of staycation.

~ coffee shop date ~ one of the things we like to do on staycation is take walks to the neighborhood st*rbucks and sit outside with our drinks talking and watching all the cars go by.  It's become kind of a nice tradition to have in the no work week

~ cherry season ~  it's cherry season here and cherries from the Okanagan are now available.  The Okanagan in British Columbia (BC) grows the most delicious fruit, especially cherries.  It's one of my favorite fruits so have been enjoying every bite as their season is so short. 

~ sleeping in ~ one of the things I love most about a staycation is the simple blessing of not having to get up to an early morning alarm.  Not that I sleep in much past an hour after the usual time but it's just the fact of not having to be tied to that alarm is a huge blessing for this night owl. 

What are some of the blessings you are grateful and thankful for from the past week?

One Word Wednesday

profusion

Out of the Dark: My Journey Through the Shadows to Finds God's Joy by Mandissa Lynn Hundley ~audiobook review

I first saw Mandisa when she was a contestant on the fifth season of  American Idol.  After several televised insults about her weight said behind her back by Simon Cowell, Mandisa came back to forgive Simon saying " I figure that if Jesus could die so that all of my wrongs could be forgiven, I can certainly extend that same grace to you."   She then went on to sing her heart out and in a shocking elimination came in 9th place.  After American Idol Mandisa went on to launch her career as a Gospel and contemporary Christian recording artist garnering several Grammy and Dove nominations and awards.  She went on to write a book about her American Idol experience called "Idol Eyes: My New Perspective on Faith, Fat and Fame"  (reviewed by me here).  But in spite of great success Mandisa still struggled and experienced pain and darkness in her journey and in spite of working hard to be healthy found herself again struggling with food addiction.  Out of the Dark continues her story to finding the joy only God can give.

I really enjoyed this audiobook.  It is not read by Mandisa, and though the narrator is very good, I wished it would have been in her own voice.  Mandisa's story is one everyone can relate to on some level as all of us experience in some form or fashion pain throughout this life's journey and places in life where we fall.  As she shared her stories of grief and loss, coping with depression and eating disorder,  the shame of failure, and how faith in Jesus brought her hope and healing I was drawn right in.  Her honesty made her story so relatable at it's core, I found myself crying several times.  It would be an encouragement to anyone struggling with depression, ongoing struggles, grief or loss, a crisis in their faith,  or anyone just needing some encouragement in their Christian journey.  

I rated this audiobook a 9.5/10.  

Reading Challenge 2022 goals met:  minimum 3 non-fiction books,  minimum 3 audiobooks

Friday's Fave Five #691

Welcome to Friday's Fave Five.  I don't know about you but I am ready to take a pause and look for my blessings during the week and take some time to be thankful an grateful to God for bringing them into my life.  Sometimes I take simple little things for granted if I don't stop and think about how that thing really is such a blessing.  Won't you join me as we share five of our favorite blessings from the past week?

~ Mom home from the hospital ~  wow, the last couple of weeks were hard.  Working all day, running to the hospital at night, but not as tough as it was for Mom.  But now she's home at the supportive living sporting a brand new pacemaker.  I'm so thankful she is still here, as it was pretty scary at times.  

~ pineapple ice cream ~  the little local small batch homemade ice cream shop's flavor of the month is pineapple.  So, so good.   I treat myself to a pint each month of a flavor and this is a fave so far.  They also gave me a taste of the other flavor of the month, maple berry cornbread.  Sounds bizarre but it was surprisingly very good.

~ book declutter ~ I braved my closet floor and the stacks of books and was strong enough to get rid of 7 or 8 books.  I had to get really honest with myself about whether or not I thought I was going to realistically read them.  But I feel good about letting them go to Little Libraries where hopefully someone else will find them and be excited to read them.  I find letting go of books is so hard.  But hopefully this was like priming the pump and I'll be able to let a few more go that deep down I know I will just not get around to reading.

~ Indian food ~ One of my favorite takeouts, we treated ourselves last weekend.   Coconut rice, garlic naan, lamb Rogan-Josh for me and beef Kadhai for hubby.  And bonus, there was leftovers for the next day.  Soooo good.

~ vacation time starts today at 5 ~  I am so ready for some time off!  It will probably be a staycation week but the thought of not having to get up to an alarm clock and some nice walks and bike rides and lots of reading is making me happy.  Oh the anticipation.  LOL.

What are your favorite blessings from the week?

Friday's Fave Five #690

Hi everyone and Happy Friday.  Unfortunately I won't be doing a Fave Five post today.  My Mom is in hospital and it's been a tad busy and mentally and  emotionally taxing.  I will put up the Linky so that you guys can go ahead and participate.  I hope to be back next week!

you're not enough (and that's ok) by Allie Beth Stuckey

Popular Christian podcaster and public speaker, Allie Beth Stuckey, takes a look at the prevalent mindset of today's culture in which almost every self-help guru, mommy blogger and public speaker/motivator preaches a message of self-love and if we would just love ourselves enough everything would work out and be a-ok in our lives.  She challenges the concepts that have even cropped up in today's politics and churches,  that tell us if we loved ourselves enough that we would be successful, complete and secure pointing out that in putting so much focus and emphasis on ourselves is in fact causing us to hit dead ends and to struggle with inadequacy and insecurity as we can never reach that ultimate goal.  She argues that we are not enough in and of ourselves, and that that is ok and that constantly trying to become enough has led us to become a culture of self-obsessed people.   This book points to God being the One who is enough and that in releasing the constant chasing of perfection to Him we can embrace the not being enough and rest in His purpose and calling.

I did this book in a study with a friend.  It is a short, easy read and led to some really good discussion.  It is definitely a book that goes counter to popular culture.   The book is broken into 5 myths of today's culture:  You are Enough, You Determine Your Truth, You're Perfect the Way You Are, You're Entitled to Your Dreams, and You Can't Love Others Until You Love Yourself.  Each chapter takes a look at these myths, how they affect us today and how they stack up to the Word (the bible).  She argues her case in each chapter by relating her own story and mixing in stories of others along with some scripture references.  

I enjoyed parts of this book and a few parts not so much.  While it does make it hard to review this book,  it did lead to really good discussion with my friend which was a good thing.  It had a lot of story telling and I found while some of it was relevant to her point, some of it just became rambling.    I even skimmed some of the stories.  The author was honest on how she came to her conclusions that a lot of what is presented as a solution to woman today actually compounds stress for women and takes on some tough issues with a black and white boldness.  I did find that a few times the black and white courage came from her political viewpoints and crossed over into sounding very unsympathetic or harsh towards certain issues.  In attempting to answer the question "Is your quest to love yourself more actually making you miserable?" I think that at times she veered into commentaries that in the end were her strong opinions and not necessarily bible study material.      It seems to be a book either one hates or loves according to ratings on amazon.  Those that complained it's too religious and constantly points to God apparently didn't read the publisher's description because it does not hide in the least what it is about and that is pointing to leaning on God to make us enough.  

I rated it 7.5/10

Reading Goals Met:  Read at least 3 non-fictions

Friday's Fave Five #689

Hi everyone.  Welcome to Friday's Fave Five.  Please join us as we open our eyes and hearts to all the blessings in our lives, both big and small.  If you're new the guidelines are linked in the sidebar.  Then just join on in!

 ~ evening walk ~ we've had some gorgeous weather but one evening during the week it was absolute perfection.  I decided to take Tux on a walk in the later evening to a Little Free Library close to home.  It was warm but not overly hot as it was evening and the sun was on it's way down, still totally light outside, no wind whatsoever, the birds were chirping.  Tux walked really nicely, which isn't always a given and I found a book at the Little Library that interested me.  

~ greening up ~ we've had some good spring and summer showers this year and things are looking so wonderfully green this year.  I'm soaking the lovely color in before summer heat and no rain starts to turn the local scenery in the coulees and river bottom brown.  

~ stunning late evening sky ~ this incredibly lovely evening sky was a joy to behold last night.  Such a gorgeous orangey pink against a light blue sky.  God is an artist!

~ lunch out with friends ~ I'm always up for a lunch out with friends on a Sunday.  Great food enjoyed with great company!  

~ smell of rain ~ love the smell of a short afternoon rain on a warm summer day.  So fresh!

What are you grateful for this week?

One Word Wednesday

beauty

Friday's Fave Five #688

Welcome to the second half of the year! Wait, what?  How did that happen?  How can it already be the start to the last half of 2022 already.  Time is just a marchin' on, I tell ya.  Good thing Friday's ground me and make me take a pause to reflect on the goodness of God or it would just zip right on by.  Please join us as we look back over the week to find the blessings God has brought our way, big or small and to share five of them.  

~ birdsong ~ the pine trees next door have been host to a variety of birds over the years and this spring and summer a canary has taken residence.  We are privy to it's wonderful singing on an almost daily basis.  It's a shy little creature though who doesn't like to have it's picture taken as I cannot even catch a glimpse of him though goodness knows I've tried. 

~ new summertime favorite drink ~ every summer St*rbucks comes up with a new summer  flavor and this year they have hit it out of the park for me.  What's more summery than Pineapple/P*ssionfruit?  Oh wait, add coconut to make a P*radise Drink.  (* in place of "a" so I don't get a whole bunch of strange googlers).  Oh my, I'm going to have a hard time resisting being there everyday to get this!

~ special delivery ~ I picked up my aforementioned drink on my way to make a special delivery to my Mom.  I picked the first bloom off of the peony bush that I took from her home before it was sold  to take to her.  She was so pleased and watching her big smile while looking at it made me so happy.  

~ foot mask ~ with sandal weather upon us, it is time for a good pedicure, but now that my Esthetician daughter no longer lives in the same city as me, I am back to the good ol' fashioned homemade pedicure.  My friend had gifted me one of these for Christmas and I was saving it for just such a time.  It's a sock like thingy you put on your feet for 20 minutes and it leaves your feet nice and soft.  Just what I needed.  A fresh coat of "Mellow" yellow polish just speaks summery to me.  Now I'm ready for some cute sandals.

~ long weekend ~ July 1st is Canada Day here for us Canadians.  So glad this year it lands on a Friday so we have a long weekend!  I need this day off.  Though I won't be going where the crowds are to celebrate, I will enjoy some bike riding, reading and down time.  I have some plans to get some organization done, we'll see if that happens.  

What have been your favorite blessings this week?